Massive Skyrim Online
by Flappy741
Summary: Justin loves the virtual world of "Massive Skyrim Online"… until he realizes he can't log out. With no fast travel, saving, safe waiting, and most importantly respawning, Justin quickly adjusts to the law of the jungle against 20,000 players. Until Alduin is defeated, death awaits everyone at every turn.
1. Chapter 1

Massive Skyrim Online

Chapter 1

In a small room, a freckled, blond teenager sits on a low bed in a corner next to some windows. Blue-white light drifted through the blinds, barely illuminating the musty room. A ceiling fan swung around as its chipped wooden blades twirled faster, circulating dust throughout the room. On a nightstand next to the bed was a digital clock (2:59 p.m., 5/21/26), a vase with sunflowers, and a picture of the teen's family: a tall blond man with glasses in a lab coat, a choppy brown hair lady in a business suit, the teen himself with a big smile on his face, and an elementary girl with a big grin, exposing her two buck teeth. On the wall above the nightstand hung a makeshift calendar with May 21st circled- _Massive Skyrim Online released!_

The teenager stared calmly at the device in his hand-a neuroperception scanner (dubbed " the gaming headband") hooked up to two internet cables in the wall-and sighed with a small smile. Slowly, he slid the gaming headband over his head with the tinted black glass shielding his eyes and laid down on the bed.

He took three more deep breaths and then laid still for a moment. With a sudden pulse throughout his body, he commanded, "Link start!"

Rapidly, his surroundings began to dissolve into a blur of rainbow colors. He heard the digital system processor entering information from his brain into the game. Instead of laying down, he stood on a black void. The smell of dust and breakfast left his nose as he breathed in an entirely new scent: nothing.

After a half a minute of standing in the black space, the scene changed into the white digital world of empty space. In the air above him, credits went by: BetaStudios and VirtualEntertainment.

"Hello," a female voice echoed all around him. "I am M. Soa, Massive Skyrim Online's Assistant. If you have any questions at any time, please say 'help,' then ask your question. Is this your first time playing?"

"Yes," said the teenager.

"Character Creation Menu," said Soa. "Please tell me your name."

"Justin."

Suddenly, multiple non-player character (NPC) avatars appeared around him, ranging from a blond human to a cat race to several elves and more. "Please select your race."

Justin walked straight ahead of him towards the Nord with full iron, heavy armor. As he approached, a summary of the race appeared to the upper-right of him:

―Nord

-Powers: battlecry, resistance to frost

"Nords are a race that were led to Skyrim by Ysgramor. They are tall, fair-haired and pale skinned humans from Atmora who are known for their incredible resistance to cold and even magical frost. They are enthusiastic warriors, and act as soldiers, mercenaries, merchants and blacksmiths all over Tamriel. Eager to augment their martial skills beyond the traditional methods of Skyrim, they excel in all manner of warfare. Above all else in Nord culture is the quest for honor and glory, and a great emphasis is placed on family values. They thrive in the cold, reminiscent of their native Atmora, and are known as militant people by their neighbors. Nords are also naturally superior at sea, and have benefited from nautical trade since their first migrations across the sea from Atmora. They captain and crew the merchant fleets of many regions, and may be found all along Tamriel's coasts. They issue a battle cry to make their enemies flee for a short time. Nords comprise the majority of the Stormcloaks, as well as the majority of the population of Skyrim" (ElderScrollsWiki).

As he touched the avatar, all the other ones disappeared. "Would you like to use your real image?" Soa asked.

"Yes, please."

"Lift your arms and please hold still."

Justin held his arms up like a scarecrow. Several green grids appeared all over his body for an instant, then disappeared.

Then, all around him, the several perk trees of the game appeared. "Select only three," the system voice said. "Your first one will be your master class. The second will be your expert class. The third will be your adept class. I highly recommend you have at least one fighting skill.

 _This is new,_ Justin thought to himself. "Help."

"How may I help you?" Sao asked.

"What is this?" he asked.

"You are currently in the Perk Section of the Character Creation Menu. Here, each player may only select three trees. The first one selected will be your master skill in which you can unlock all of its perks and advance to legendary perks. The second one selected will be your expert skill, in which you can only unlock perks up to level 80. The third one selected will be your adept skill, in which you can only unlock perks up to level 50. Would you like to hear more?"

 _Legendary perks?_

He turned and looked among all the skills. He shrugged off asking about the legendary perks and looked around. Then, after a minute of careful thinking, he chose his three: block (master), heavy armor (expert), and one-handed (adept).

The trees disappeared. Then a digital list of the game's location names appeared in front of him. "Please select your server."

Justin didn't need to scroll down. He selected the one with _recommended_ next to it-Helgen.

"Connecting to Helgen... connection successful."

Then everything around him went black.

"This is _awesome!_ " said a plump male wood elf.

Seven other players besides Justin were sitting in the starting wagon, steadily rolling towards Helgen. They were the third cart in the four-cart prisoner 'train' of Stormcloacks and criminals. Most of the players like Justin stayed quiet, but they were also thinking the same thing the wood elf was-virtual reality was beautiful.

Justin could feel the gentle breeze caress his face as he closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of the wilderness: the bark of the evergreen trees, the dirt being kicked up from the road in front of him, and the light scent of the mountain flowers on the side of the road. Justin looked up towards the sun, partially blocked by the bright green leaves of the forest trees.

There was no doubt in his mind. This was _way_ better than reality. Well, _his_ reality, anyway.

Even if he was in filthy ragged trousers and tied up.

All eight of the players filled a single wagon, sitting four by four across from each other. Justin and a redguard woman sat on the rear end, almost on the edge of the wagon. Although he was sure they were programmed not to fall off, he still squirmed away from its open back.

The plump wood elf took in his surroundings with awe one last time, then sat down and looked among the players. "If any of you guys who are new want to survive this, stick with me. I've played this on legendary over and over. In fact, how many of you guys _are_ new?"

Nobody said anything at first. Most of them, including Justin, only kept their heads down and stayed silent. Then the only one who actually responded was a bald female Argonian who sat to the left of Justin. "I'm not new, but I heard there were _a lot_ of changes, as in new additions to the game. Did anybody hear anything different?"

"Oooh, so that explains the character creation," said a bluish female orc next to the redguard on the edge. "When it asked for three perk trees, I was like 'what the fuck?' Yeah, I heard that new additions would be like new quests, new locations, and more legendary stuff. I saw a leak on the forums that you can learn to be many more races besides vampire lord and werewolf. I think one of them was a mermaid?"

The plump elf smiled. "I like the sound of that. Anyways, we should all team up. Who knows what else changed. 'United we stand, divided we fall,' right?"

The majority nodded in agreement. The only one who didn't was Justin, who quietly kept his head low. He was already too busy analyzing everyone around him and doing some long term planning for the game. He doubted any of them realized Ulfric Stormcloak wasn't in any of the wagons around them.

Eventually, they arrived at Helgen.

As they rode on through the town, nothing seemed to have had changed at first look: the train took the same route throw the city, the same NPCs were looking at them, and the imperial captain had the same authoritative dialogue for the prisoners. But there _was_ a notable difference...

"Hey, where's Hadvar?" one of the players asked.

All the players looked around, but none of them saw the imperial escort anywhere. They soon also realized that neither Ralof of Riverwood, General Tullius, or Lokir of Rorikstead was among the prisoners, either.

Justin looked around at all the building one last time. If those NPCs weren't with them, then the escape procedure must've been changed. For all he knew, Alduin might not even attack the keep for a distraction. He had to figure out another escape route in Helgen besides either the town barracks or the keep.

"Step towards the block when I call your name. One at a time!" Instead of Hadvar reading from the list, the captain herself held it up. "I'llKickYourAss39!"

The plump elf smirked as he wove through the players. "I go by either Ikya or 39 for future reference."

Just before he made his way out of the crowd, Ikya stubbed a toe into the ground and pitifully tripped. All the players except Justin laughed as he hurried back onto his feet and went to the block with a reddish face. Justin observed this and took careful note of everything.

"Justin!"

Justin moved through the prisoners with ease as a few others stole glances at him. As he stood and waited for the rest of the prisoners to be called, he reviewed what he learned: the three keeps closest to the execution scaffold each had a soldier armed at the very top. The farthest of the three had no guards at its doors while both the others had one. The game now allowed complex, realistic movements like stumbling, tripping, and, no doubt, falling.

He now had two plans in his head. They both now depended on one factor-if Alduin shows up or not.

When the last prisoner was finally called, the captain went next to a priestess who was next to the executioner. "Read them their last rights."

The priestess held up her arms. "As we commend your souls to Aetherius, blessings of the Eight Divines upon you, for you are the salt and earth of Nirn, our beloved..."

All the players tensed in anticipation of the redheaded stormcloack interrupting her, but he wasn't among them. They all looked at each other as the priestess continued to give them their rights.

The priestess went on for quite some time about the hell of Sovngarde and how the many ways Nirn loved them all. But it was in the middle of her speech that all the players sighed with relief while all the NPCs looked up in confusion. As the priestess was preaching, an echoing bone-chilling roar echoed off the nearby mountain, off the walls of the keep, and into everyone's ears.

Everyone looked to see a massive black figure plummet down from the sky.

And the game begins...


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Archers!" the captain called out.

Before any soldier could pull back their bows, the black dragon landed on the keep and blew fire at the general.

Then all Sovngarde broke loose.

Citizens screamed and ran for cover, either in their houses or in the keeps. The imperial army shot arrow after arrow and threw fireball after fireball, but all of what seemed to be in vain. The rest of them—the prisoners—broke out in all directions like a line of ants being disrupted.

Skillfully dodging running bodies left and right, Justin made a break for the closest keep, which was now left unguarded. His HUD faded into view and at the bottom right of his peripheral vision, a green bar showed his stamina steadily depleting as he ran. The keep's door was closed, but Justin didn't slow down. Closing his eyes, he lunged back first. With a satisfying _BANG!_ the door flew open and Justin sprinted for the top.

Quickly reaching the trapdoor, he flung his fists up like a volleyball player and slammed it open. Slowly, he lifted his head to see a soldier near the edge, completely focused on the dragon in the air that was still raining fire on the town. Justin saw a wooden table and a chair with an iron dagger and a full loaf of bread on it with a silver plate. Without a second thought, he stood on the keep, ran at the guard, and body slammed him with his shoulder.

"Whoa... whoa!"

Dropping his bow and arrow, he tried to grab on to anything as he stumbled, but the effort was too little and too late. The soldier tumbled over, yelling as he fell, and Justin could hear his voice submerging into the pandemonium below.

Justin truly felt bad for having to kill a human like that—even if it was a NPC—but he couldn't think of anything better. Turning his attention back on survival, he approached the table with the dagger and leaned down. He grabbed ahold of the hilt with his mouth and swung it at the ropes. With what seemed like no effort, the ropes split off and fell onto the floor.

 _Stage two,_ he thought.Tossing the dagger from his mouth to his right hand, he flew down the cobblestone stairs. He ran out of stamina halfway down, giving him the feeling of pain in his sides along with heavy breathing, but continued to jog down. Other NPC prisoners and the redguard female were taking shelter at the bottom of the keep. The girl called out to him to stop as he went past her, but he continued to run until he was outside.

Justin analyzed his surroundings in surprise. He was worried that one of the other seven players would take the loot of his kill, but numerous dead bodies from mages to warriors littered the floor. Justin reached out to the closest dead imperial near him, but as he heard an ear-bursting roar from above, he made a one-eighty and sprinted back into the keep as a meteor crashed onto the body he was about to loot, sending it flying into one of the burning houses.

Justin ran back in and shut the door behind him with his stamina bar completely empty. The redguard female walked up to him and growled. She had bright red and short hair spiraling to her left, so Justin assumed this was her real image. Her fists trembled as her eyes burned with fire in them. "I _told_ you to stop! I had good reasons!"

It barely registered to Justin that he was huffing and puffing as he spoke. "Sorry… about that. I just… had… a game plan set up… and I was following through." He took a moment to breathe. "Do you know if there where there _that_ many dead bodies in the old version?"

She sighed as a way of saying _how did I end up with this fool?_ "Justin, was it?" She had a very irritated and annoyed tone. "Remember the forum said there were going to be some _major_ changes?... Yeah, some friendly advice? I wouldn't try going off of what it used to be."

Justin was going to tell her his plan, but after that comment, he decided to keep it to himself. "Ok, then I'll improvise, but first order of business should be getting some armor."

"I've tried already, but it isn't that easy." She opened the door and looked up at the sky. "The same thing keeps happening: every time I'm outside, even along the walls out of Alduin's view, meteors flies down. And _big_ ones, too."

Justin nodded and looked out the door with her. "Then we just improvise my improvisation."

She turned towards him and raised an eyebrow. "Got a new plan?"

"It's still in development," he said as he looked around. From the keep he was in, two burning houses were to the left, the keep Alduin had stood on was about a five-second sprint away, the barracks about a twenty-second sprint away, and the inn (which was still intact, unlike in the old version) about a four. Justin looked back to the NPC prisoners. "The question is how to mobilize them."

She looked at the NPCs as well. "Mobilize… sacrifices?"

"Distractions." He walked up to them as they were panicking amongst themselves. "The legends... the old fairy tales," one of them said to themselves, "... they... they... this can't be!"

"Legends don't burn down villages," Justin said.

The NPCs looked up as if they just noticed his presence. Then another one of them stood up. "What do you suppose we do, then? It's a _dragon!_ Of the end times!"

"First, we need to move," said the redguard. "Like, _now."_

 _"_ That dragon knows we're in here," Justin continued. "If we stay, the whole keep will fall on top of us."

As if to prove his point, Alduin roared and the keep shook. Tiny pieces of rubble fell swiftly from above.

Nobody argued.

"But where in Oblivion can we go?" one of with a heavy voice asked. "That damn dragon will kill us if it sees us out in the open."

 _I'm glad you asked,_ Jason thought. "See that building across the way?" Justin pointed out the door towards the barracks and everyone followed his finger. "I overheard that there's an underground escape route in there from one of the soldiers. If we can make it in there by moving quickly, I bet we can get out of here."

"All the way over _there_?" a female soldier asked. "That dragon will kill us before we can even get halfway!"

"And it will kill us, period, if we stay here!" the redguard argued back.

The NPCs murmured to themselves as the redguard slowly leaned towards Justin's ear. "You sure this is a good idea?"

Alduin roared again and the keep shook even harder than before. This time, an entire stone fell from above. Sunlight now shined through from up top.

"No," he admitted, "but it's the only plan I got and we're pressed for time."

"He's right," a prisoner with the deep voice finally said. "If we stay here, this will be our tomb." He turned to Justin. "You were one of the outsiders who tried to cross the border, right? We're sorry for getting you mixed up in all of this, but when we make out alive, you should make your way to Yarl Ulfric in Windhelm."

Justin wasn't too sure of the "we" part-the chances of either of them dying were high-but he nodded. "Keep your eyes on the sky at all times! Move out!"

Justin began to run straight for the barracks with everyone else behind him. Just as he heard a roar, he made an immediate ninety-degree turn and ran for the nearest body. _Please let my theory be right, please let my theory be right._

Justin looked up to see several meteors fall from the sky. He knelt down to loot a soldier as meteors rained down on where he would have been had he kept running towards the keep. (A/N: meteors calculate the target's speed and direction from their spawn point. Although the time-gap is small, there's just enough time to evade).

As he touched the corpse, a list of equipped items appeared. He quickly scanned the list of objects. He thought of what he wanted to take-the full imperial light armor set, the imperial sword, a sweet roll, and a book titled 'The Masters'-and instantly, Justin's inventory filled up.

He got up and sprinted. As he selected the armor to equip, a timer spawned for each item. (A/N: the game developers have calculated the average time for people to normally put on each kind of clothing and incorporated it into the game). He looked around to see a timer above the redguard woman as well, who was in front of her and the rest of the NPCs running for the keep.

From above came another lurid roar as Justin hurdled over burning rubble of a house. "Heads up!" the redguard yelled.

Most of them did look up and moved around to avoid more meteors. One, however, ignored the warning. As a male stormcloak soldier jumped over a pile of rocks from a fallen keep, a meteor landed right at his feet as he landed. The soldier flew into the sky and slammed against the top of the town wall along with other small rocks and dirt. He limply fell to the ground with a loud _THUD_ and didn't move an inch afterwards.

Jason cursed, but he kept on moving.

After a few more seconds, his tunic was replaced with the imperial armor as the timer above him reset itself. The redguard was now in her body armor and also had a timer above her. He assumed she had the same equipment as him and took note of it.

As Jason's stamina bar was reaching empty, the group reached the doors. The blond male soldier who was in front of all of them roared and shoulder-charged the door. The double doors swung open and the NPCs fled in. The redguard went from a sprint to a jog, breathing heavily as Jason ran past her. Before either of them could reach the doors, Alduin roared again.

With the rest of his stamina, Jason dove to the right, managing to dodge the fatal blow. But with no stamina left, the redguard couldn't dodge hers. A small meteor, about the size of a basketball, crashed into the ground on the right of her and she toppled over, rolling across the dirt until she hit the keep. While looking at her, a bar popped up at the top of his HUD with a miniscule amount of red left. Even though she was still conscious, she didn't get up. In her eyes was a dazed look and Justin knew instantly she must've gotten a concussion.

"Hurry up!" shouted the male stormcloak. "I'm closing the doors when I hear it roar!"

The redguard sluggishly looked up, looking Slander in the eyes. _Help me,_ her eyes told her.

Justin wanted to help her. He truly did. But he figured there was nothing he could no with zero stamina. For all he knew, it probably costed stamina to help carry her and that was something he didn't have.

With a heavy heart, he jogged up the stairs, unable to meet her gaze. Just as he moved in, Alduin roared. The soldier slammed the doors shut and held them together as they heard the redguard scream just before they felt the impact of the meteorites.

"Do not commit to anyone," he whispered.


End file.
